Hoarder charged with animal cruelty after 10 dead animals found in home
Officials also found 20 live animals, drugs and drug paraphernalia in the home –
where “pungent” rubbish piles made personnel “gag,” an animal welfare charity
has said.
Monday 10 February 2025 21:08, UK
A woman has been charged with animal cruelty after 10 dead animals were found in
her home.
Detectives executing a search warrant found nine dead sugar gliders (a type of
possum) and one dead snake.
A “pungent” smell of “noxious air and an odour of faeces, urine and rot […] made
personnel cough and gag” as they started the search, a local animal welfare
group in Suffolk County, in the US state of New York, said.
Authorities found 20 live animals – 11 sugar gliders and nine cats – which were
living in an “overcrowded area of hoarded garbage over six feet high in some
spaces”.
Drug paraphernalia, crack cocaine and MDMA were also recovered from the house,
in Long Island, New York.
The conditions were so extreme that personnel had to crawl over piles of
rubbish, Suffolk County SPCA said in a post on Facebook.
A photograph taken inside the house shows animal cages balanced on top of boxes
marked ‘United States Postal Services’ and bin bags.
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The residence has now been declared unfit for human occupancy.
Cazandra Nucci, 42, has been charged with multiple animal cruelty charges,
possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia. She
will appear in court on 28 February.
The surviving animals will soon be available for adoption at a local shelter.
